The automobile launch season for the 2026 Method 1 season is firmly beneath means with Crimson Bull, Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi and Mercedes all having revealed their liveries for this 12 months.
Up subsequent is Ferrari on Friday after what was a extremely disappointing 2025 marketing campaign, because the Italian outfit slipped to fourth within the championship and didn’t win a grand prix for the primary time since 2021.
However 2026 brings renewed optimism due to the widespread regulation modifications, but will that hope shortly fall flat identical to it did in 2022?
What’s new at Ferrari?
Not an entire lot has modified at Ferrari for F1 2026, contemplating it has saved its driver pairing of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Fred Vasseur stays crew principal and, spoiler alert, the automobile it should reveal on Friday is purple.
Just lately, nevertheless, it was introduced that Riccardo Adami will go away his position as Hamilton’s race engineer to supervise the testing of earlier vehicles for members throughout the Ferrari younger driver programme.
Adami is a Ferrari stalwart, the 52-year-old having joined from Toro Rosso in 2015 to work as a race engineer for Sebastian Vettel after which Hamilton’s predecessor Carlos Sainz. So the Italian naturally assumed that position when the seven-time world champion joined in 2025, however very early on it grew to become obvious that there have been communication points between the pair.
Riccardo Adami, Engineer Ferrari
Picture by: Ferrari
Most notably in Monaco, the place Hamilton claimed that radio communication “wasn’t that clear” after he suffered a grid penalty for impeding Max Verstappen in Q1 as a result of his crew mistakenly knowledgeable him that the Crimson Bull driver was slowing down.
Then on the Sunday, Hamilton gave the same old post-race message after ending fifth however radio silence adopted, to which the Briton reacted, “Are you upset with me or one thing?”.
There have been additionally events the place he voiced displeasure over technique, resembling Miami with the sarcastic “have a tea break whilst you’re at it”, so all 12 months the Hamilton-Adami relationship simply got here throughout as fractious and it has been prompt that they lacked the requisite chemistry – even when that has been denied by the crew.
Who Adami’s successor will likely be although will not be but identified, however it must be anyone who can hit the bottom operating with Hamilton as a result of he can not simply preserve churning by them in hope that he’ll replicate what he had alongside Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.
Particularly as a result of that is such an enormous 12 months for Hamilton, who had a disappointing 2025 by ending sixth within the standings, 86 factors behind fifth-placed Leclerc and didn’t win a grand prix – the third time he has finished so in 4 years.
If the struggles persist for the 41-year-old, then he may retire on the finish of the season, particularly as a result of that’s when Hamilton’s contract expires, and though it’s understood that there’s an choice for a 3rd 12 months, it must be helpful for all events to proceed.
What’s the largest problem to Ferrari?
Ferrari is a crew like no different, contemplating it’s the solely squad to have competed in each season of F1, and through that point it has established itself as probably the most profitable outfit with a mixed 31 championships.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Pictures through Getty Pictures
Generally that may be its Achilles heel, as a result of it brings a sure stage of expectation annually and it doesn’t assist that Ferrari consistently has the demanding Italian media on its again – much like the protection of Manchester United from the British press.
That was notably seen final 12 months, when main Italian publications have been speculating that Vasseur’s Ferrari days have been numbered plus that of key personnel following an underwhelming begin to 2025.
Vasseur got here out on the assault in Montreal, criticising the journalists who ran mentioned tales earlier than claiming that “we’re on this scenario each day now in Italy and it’s an excessive amount of. In the event that they need to achieve success, we’ve got to have the ability to work in a clear atmosphere and we aren’t on this scenario.”
So an enormous problem for anyone at Ferrari is to try to block the surface noise to deal with the matter at hand, which is delivering upon mentioned expectations. That’s one thing the Scuderia must notably do that 12 months, as its 18-year championship drought goes on and Ferrari can not afford to have a driver resembling Leclerc on its books not win a title, or to have the blockbuster Hamilton transfer fail to ship.
What’s the strongest asset to Ferrari?
Though there was final 12 months’s hypothesis of Vasseur leaving Ferrari amid its 2025 woes, the Frenchman should nonetheless be thought of because the Scuderia’s strongest asset; fairly frankly, if Vasseur can not lead Ferrari to success then no one will.
As a result of Vasseur actually is that good, one thing witnessed throughout his entire administration profession. It began in GP2, the place he received the title with Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg as ART boss, earlier than finally making the step as much as F1 with Renault.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari
Picture by: Andrej Isakovic / AFP through Getty Pictures
Though that stint solely lasted one season, he fared a lot better in his 5 years at Sauber the place Vasseur helped nurture a rookie Leclerc, full the Alfa Romeo deal and lead the comparatively minnow Swiss squad to sixth within the 2022 championship.
It additionally helps that Vasseur is considerably faraway from the Italian bubble that has usually plagued Ferrari through the years, because the 57-year-old exuberates a stage of calmness and customary sense that lots of his predecessors didn’t.
One instance of that’s his strategy with the media, whether or not it was his response in Canada which helped to barely defuse the scenario or the way in which he consistently defends his drivers within the press – no matter Hamilton, for instance, struggling three straight Q1 exits.
He is aware of Ferrari isn’t a fast repair, that quite a lot of issues want to alter for the foundations to be stronger and there isn’t a greater man for the job – a job which is sort of probably the toughest in F1 – as a result of Vasseur has all of the steel to cope with no matter will get thrown on the Scuderia boss.
What’s the purpose in F1 2026 for Ferrari?
The purpose for 2026 at Ferrari is sort of easy: to return to the highest. That’s as a result of quite a lot of the older era can have grown up on dominance from the Scuderia with its titles throughout the Nineteen Sixties to early 2000s, however it’s a fully totally different story for youthful followers.
A lot of them is not going to have even witnessed a Ferrari championship, contemplating the final was the 2008 constructors’ crown with its final drivers’ title coming the 12 months earlier than through Kimi Raikkonen – however it’s not like they’ve by no means had an opportunity to beat that drought since.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1st place
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
First there was 2012 when Fernando Alonso squandered a 39-point lead over eventual champion Vettel, earlier than the German had his personal Ferrari heartache six years later; Vettel had the sting over Hamilton within the F1 2018 title battle, however then he crashed from the lead in Germany handy his Mercedes rival all of the momentum.
Heartache appears to be a theme for all Ferrari drivers, as Leclerc received two of the primary three grands prix in 2022 – the opening 12 months of ground-effect vehicles – to ascertain a 34-point lead. However then errors from the Monegasque, plus the crew, led to Verstappen romping in direction of a second title.
Such fixed failings have thus created a story at Ferrari that it usually chokes within the high-pressure moments, so the purpose have to be to rewrite the script and convey the glory days again to Maranello.
The brand new laws are an opportunity to take action, however as Leclerc as soon as mentioned final 12 months in his finest Elvis voice: “It’s now or by no means” to develop into champions.
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